OPINION:
Freedom must never be taken for granted, as it is fragile. The men and women who have served our country in the armed forces know that better than most of the rest of us here in the United States. Thank you to our veterans and those still serving today — as well as their families.
In 1998, Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela as a socialist. He and his government took over private industries and ruined the once-prosperous nation. Years of deficit spending and price controls led to an economic meltdown.
Today, even Venezuelans with homes and jobs are found picking through garbage for food, much like the homeless in California. Things have become so bad that Venezuela has one of the largest refugee crises in the world. Socialism does not work.
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Even worse is the oppression and lack of freedom. As president, Chavez eventually took action to suppress the press, rig the elections and imprison political opponents. Even the murder rate went up during his regime.
Today, policies of the Democratic Socialists of America are being proposed in radicalized cities all across our nation. Liberals who disagree with political beliefs label the speech of their opponents “disinformation” in an attempt to shut them down. Watch for more of these radical moves come January.
Our fundamental freedoms are at risk.
Decades ago, we saw the same in Germany. After World War II, the country was divided into four areas: the Soviet zone, the British zone, the American zone and the French zone. Eventually, three of these were combined to form the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly known as West Germany, which adopted a capitalist democracy.
The Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, and adopted a communist, one-party state. Acting on decrees issued that week by East Germany’s parliament and Council of Ministers, on the night of Aug. 12–13, 1961, East German soldiers, police and construction workers put up barbed wire and erected a wall between the two sectors to stop the mass migration of East German citizens out of the country.
The purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep people from fleeing to West Germany and freedom.
The Iron Curtain was the name for the division between Western-style democracies and Soviet-dominated communist states. The Berlin Wall was a vivid reminder of the barriers to freedom for those stuck in the East.
In 1987, President Reagan went to the Brandenburg Gate, where the wall separating East and West Germany stood, and delivered one of the most iconic speeches of all time. He challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, then leader of the Soviet Union, saying, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
My friend Peter Robinson wrote that speech nearly 40 years ago. He traveled to West Berlin before Reagan’s address to get a sense of the region. He told me that he asked to have dinner with his hosts and some of their friends. They told him about family and friends who were stuck on the other side of the wall — while they lived in freedom.
Peter’s host said that if Gorbachev was serious about his proposed reforms of glasnost and perestroika, or openness and restructuring, respectively, he should get rid of the wall. A spark was lit, and Peter knew what the president would want to say upon hearing the people’s reaction.
Top officials in the State Department, National Security Council and White House wanted to remove the phrase. Reagan insisted on keeping it in the speech.
It should be no surprise that our 40th president made his commitment to freedom clear on his first day in office. In his 1981 inaugural address, he declared:
“Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors.”
Less than 2½ years after Reagan called out the oppressors in the Kremlin, the Berlin Wall came down — and with it fell communism across the old Soviet Empire.
Concerns over freedom, however, are not things of the past.
Today, we see threats to freedom in Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia and other places around the world. We must be vigilant to protect freedom here in America just as so many veterans have done for more than 250 years.
We live in the land of the free because of the brave. God bless them all.
• Scott Walker is a columnist for The Washington Times. He was the 45th governor of Wisconsin and launched a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He lives in Milwaukee and is the proud owner of a 2003 Harley-Davidson Road King. He can be reached at swalker@washingtontimes.com.
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